As an artist, you’re constantly learning and improving on what you’ve done in the past. Usually, and hopefully, you’ll only get better at your craft as you continue your career. If this is Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ voice in her feature directorial debut, we’re looking at a star in the making. It Is In Us All finds Hamish Considine (Cosmo Jarvis) returning to Ireland after his aunt passes away to see where she and his mother grew up and the house his aunt left him. On the drive to the house, he gets into a car crash and ends up staying to heal, physically and emotionally.
It’s clear from the way Hamish carries himself, the clothes he wears, and even the car he rented after landing in Ireland that he comes from money, but what he does for a living for his career is never revealed. He works with or for his father Jack (Claes Bang), and there’s talk of an Amazon deal. These are the stakes at hand while Hamish struggles to figure out who he will become: someone who would focus solely on his career and money, or instead, a connection. A connection to land, people, family — at this point, it seems any of them would do.
Some filmmakers are better at working with visuals, and others are better at working with actors — Campbell-Hughes is incredible at both. Jarvis’ performance is so precise and hidden, with a tease of what lies underneath those eyes, that we wait with anticipation throughout the brief run-time to find out what indeed is the point of this visit. Meanwhile, cinematographer Piers McGrail does a phenomenal job capturing a sense of history in every smokey frame. It is a film that brings attention to each shot but still feels subtle. These words best describe the film: subtle, hidden, and precise.
As someone whose family came from Chile to Canada, but has never visited, I feel a forgotten and ignored connection. For Hamish, his relationship to Ireland was through his mother and a single visit with her when he was younger. It’s small enough to feel almost non-existent for him, so it’s been forgotten and ignored until he landed. He slowly uncovers it, and it becomes fascinating to be allowed to join on this journey as he unwraps it for himself, and us.
It Is In Us All is a film that struck me quickly and kept me captivated entirely during the film’s runtime and has stayed with me since I’ve seen it. Jarvis’ performance is layered and allows him to shine, as it’s genuinely his vehicle to take complete control of in every frame. Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ debut is an extraordinary film that I hope people pay attention to, just as I plan to watch her career continue.
